Carlo Bergonzi Will Define 'Retirement' as He Wishes

By G. S. BOURDAIN

Published: April 16, 1994

Retirement for an opera singer means an end to instant recognition, stage-door groupies, recording projects, the pleasure of filling a theater with one's voice and the thrill of standing center stage and receiving cheers from packed houses.

But the Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi is hardly going into limbo after his American farewell concert, tomorrow night at 8 at Carnegie Hall. He spoke of his plans, in English-sprinkled Italian, yesterday in the living room of his Central Park South apartment.

"I go straight from New York to Italy to work with students at the Accademia Verdiana Carlo Bergonzi, which I founded in Bussetto 14 years ago, on a performance of the Mascagni opera 'L'Amico Fritz,' " he said. "Then I spend a month teaching at La Scala in Milan, and six weeks at the music academy in Siena. And in mid-September I start a group of European farewell concerts, starting with Berlin, Hamburg and Monaco." No Loss of Confidence

This would be a grueling schedule for singers half his 70 years, but Mr. Bergonzi -- a pudgy, avuncular man of medium height who looks 15 years younger than his age -- is confident about his powers. Reminded that he once said he wanted to stop singing when he was at 90 percent of his capacity, he said that after his recent concerts in London, Paris and Milan he was asked to return.

"So far as New York, let's hope for the same," he said with a laugh, adding that he had declined the offers.

Mr. Bergonzi attributes his vocal longevity partly to having started out as a baritone. He may not have driven audiences into frenzies with those killer high notes so beloved by opera fans, but he has been a steady, elegant singer whose career has encompassed 61 roles, 27 recordings of complete operas and more than 25 solo disks. He has sung just about every Verdi opera except "Otello" (he does sing two excerpts from the work on his recording of 31 tenor arias), and has sung most of the standard Italian repertory, but he has ventured across Italy's musical frontier only once, for Bizet's "Carmen."

As for the singers of tomorrow, he insists that voices like those of 100 years ago do exist, but that "students no longer have the patience to study for three or four years."

"They're all in a hurry," he said. "And even the ones who do study for all that time often arrive at the opera house for auditions with roles they're not vocally suited for. You know, you can become a star in one week if you're in the right place at the right time. But you need something to carry you from there.

"I have my own particular qualities. And I've always had a good public. In 47 years of singing I've had not a manufactured public, but a true public."

Mr. Bergonzi spoke lovingly of his two sons, Maurizio, a doctor, and Marco, who runs the hotel Mr. Bergonzi owns in Bussetto; his grandchildren, Marta, 7, and Carlo, 3, and especially his wife, Adele, to whom he has been married for 44 years.

New York may see Mr. Bergonzi again: he said he would always be available to sing an aria in a benefit concert. "I hope I'm asked, because I love New York," he said, proudly displaying two proclamations that pay tribute to his career, one from Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, the other from Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has declared tomorrow Carlo Bergonzi Day.

"I've had ups and downs, of course, but I don't regret anything," Mr. Bergonzi said. "Except if I had it to do all over again, I would try my best to do better."